The present invention relates to an emergency warning and escape system for a dwelling which can be easily added thereto.
Portable smoke detectors are extremely common for retrofitting dwellings and significantly improve the likelihood of successfully leaving the building or dwelling if a fire or smoke condition exists. These systems can operate on a number of principles but basically detect small particles of smoke and produce an audible alarm allowing the occupants to be alerted to the possible danger and make a suitable escape. These systems have been particularly valuable when a fire occurs at night as the occupants otherwise may be asleep and do not detect the smoke as early as they would have if they were awake.
More recently a fire detector has been introduced which again is a portable unit but has built directly therein a small halogen light source which has its own battery supply. When an alarm condition is sensed the light source is activated and provides light at least adjacent the smoke detector to assist people in finding the escape route.
There is also more sophisticated fire alarm systems wherein the smoke detector alarm is sensed by a circuit associated with an auto dial telephone and the fire department or a remote alarm monitoring service is directly called if an alarm condition occurs. This type of system is somewhat similar to intruder detection systems which are hooked up to a central monitoring service. Unfortunately for many applications, these complicated or sophisticated systems are too expensive and problems can occur due to false alarms and improperly having the fire department attend at the site.
There remains a need to provide an effective warning system which is easy to install, is relatively inexpensive and improves the effectiveness of the system.